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Thursday 23 February 2017

TOP 5 WEBSITES TO BOOKMARK TO BE A BETTER BIG DATA VISUALIZATION EXPERT

It’s no secret that all across the web, people are generating billions of gigabytes of data per day. This huge amount of information termed “Big Data,” is impossible to keep track of without first organizing it into an easily digestible format.

Turning Big Data into Understandable Visuals

Data visualization can help you to pare down the extensive influxes of data such as customer interactions, changing industry trends, and daily company operations. The right data visualization turns overwhelming data into beautiful interactive charts and graphics that you can use to improve the way that you do business. Below are a list of sites that we use for daily creative stimulation and motivation. We thought it would be great to share!

1. Visual.ly

As the founders of the largest online infographic community, Visual.ly is definitely one of our favourite go-to sites for creative inspiration. It’s a huge variety of infographics proves how easy it is to build a data visualization for just about anything. It is particularly useful when you need good ideas on how to start visualizing your big data story. Recently, the folks at Visual.ly started to offer their services to help you to take any size data and convert it into a compelling infographic. Based on our research they start at around $2,500 and can go as high as $25,000! They are however the best in business. We plan to give them a try and will post an update.

2. The Functional Art

While Alberto Cairo is a bit new to the Data Visualization space, and seemed to have popped up online out of nowhere, since the release of his book and blog ‘Functional Art’ in 2012, he has definitely caught up quickly. Now known as a highly regarded speaker on the topic of data visualization, his blog quickly nabbed the number two spot on our list. The one thing to note is that Alberto mainly focuses on visualizing journalism data, but a lot of what he teaches applies to the analytics and business intelligence field of practice. In addition to subscribing to his blog, his @albertocairo twitter account has over 22,000 followers at the time of this posting. We’ve had the pleasure to meet him and he’s such an amazing guy!

3. Information is Beautiful

We were big fans of this book before meeting David McCandless back in May. Not only is his work compelling, but his very ‘British’ approach to the data viz topic was quite fun to listen to. While Information is Beautiful type visualizations may be a bit out of reach for most of ‘us’ regular folks, following his blog is great to keep the creative juices running. He often focuses on displaying world related data, so it’s always fun to see what he comes up with next. We’re big fans!

4. Visualising Data

Founded by another famed author, Andy Kirk, we love the Visualising Data blog for its diversity in information but strict focus on data visualization. You can get everything from best practices to a long list of wild big data visualization examples. Our favourite blog category is ‘Collections’ where Kirk gives a monthly recap of articles he pulls together with some of the best content on the web. We’re looking forward to his new book!

5. GE Visualization Blog

It’s seldom that we’ll feature a big company like GE as one of our favorite community sites (we tend to find individual run communities a bit more interesting), but GE’s Visualization blog has truly done a great job with their visualization site. They keep the site updated with amazing use cases of how they use data to literally change the world. Even if you’re not into the ‘energy’ topic, this blog is intriguing to follow. Perhaps other big companies will follow suit. Most just talk a good game. Due to its ‘vast’ budget, GE also posts amazing videos showcasing what they are doing. Great job for a big enterprise.

6. International Business Communication Standards:

Providing a framework with clear rules how to optimize and standardize the communication of business numbers in order to improve the communication process.

www.ibcs-a.org/

7. Stephanie Evergreen's website:

Down to earth, very practical help to improve your data visualization work. Look for the excellent dataviz checklist: http://stephanieevergreen.com/

These are our favourite, but I’d like to hear yours.

Zubair Hussain

Sr Software Engineer & Blogger

Five lessons I wish I had learnt earlier in my career

Knowing what you know now, do you ever reflect on the early days of your professional career and wish you could rewind the clocks? I certainly do. I’ve got to admit, when I look back at some of my earlier career decisions and the hard lessons that followed soon after, I can’t help but ask myself why I did what I did, the way I did it. Needless to say, I didn’t always take the easiest route.

The early days in our careers often feel like a never ending learning curve. We put ourselves under relentless pressure to get our foot onto the next rung of the ladder, but it can be confusing to know where to even start.

Throughout our career journeys all of us have tripped up along the way - that is inevitable and you shouldn’t beat yourself up over every set back. In this blog, however, I want to save you some of the bruises by sharing some of the blunders of my early career, and the invaluable lessons I learnt from them.

Lesson #1: “He /She who shouts the loudest doesn’t necessarily get heard

During the early days of my career and in a bid to constantly try to prove myself, I thought I had to be tough, poker-faced and at times almost confrontational. I believed that this ruthless attitude was necessary in order to be noticed in a competitive environment and ultimately get that promotion I wanted.

What I now know, however, is that this approach lacks any actual substance or value. I have realised that people who shout the loudest or act unnecessarily aggressive are usually trying to mask a weakness or lack of confidence. More so, this behaviour gives the impression that you have a negative attitude, are difficult to work with and can often isolate you from potential key stakeholders.

My advice would be this; you don’t need to change your personality in order to get ahead, in fact, being authentic to your true self can often propel you even further along in your career because people feel they can trust and relate to you. Being yourself will come more naturally if you are more confident in your ability to progress your career on merit as opposed to a forged persona.

Think back to when you first got that call saying you got the job. What positive feedback did you get from the recruiter / employer? Clearly you had some great qualities and showed huge potential or else you wouldn’t have been hired. What were these characteristics and how can you be sure that you are bringing them to the table every day?

What about the things you could improve upon? Are there certain areas you feel less confident in? Whether it is knowledge gaps or relationships with key people, your manager should be able to provide some constructive feedback, so perhaps book some time in with them and ask for their guidance and support.

What I’m saying here, is that maintaining your authenticity, self-belief and self-awareness will get you a lot further along in your career than the “tough guy” act.

Lesson #2: Asking questions doesn’t make you look stupid

We can all relate to this one - not wanting to look or sound the fool but really wanting to ask a basic question that you now know would have made the early days so much easier.

What I have actually come to notice, is that the most effective and diligent employees ask questions. These people are not scared of asking basic questions or how they may be perceived for doing so.

They care more about getting their facts right and doing a good job in the long run. Even as you progress further in your career, stay humble and aware of your knowledge gaps. Just because you have been promoted, doesn’t mean you are too senior to learn something new.

Next time you are in a meeting or presentation, and you aren’t sure about something, either put your hand up and ask, or make a note of it and ask at the end. I can guarantee there will be at least one other person in the room who will be glad you did.

Lesson #3: Sharing your knowledge creates a win-win situation

By sharing more information and ideas you will help create a culture of knowledge sharing. Yet there is a point in every ambitious person’s career where information is seen as power, therefore keeping it to yourself sounds like a good idea, after all, you don’t want to let all of your secrets out of the bag. But if everyone is doing the same thing, how can anyone learn and progress?

There are plenty of opportunities for you to share your knowledge, whether it’s by putting forward an idea during a meeting, adding more input when working on team projects, or running a training session with your team. Talented individuals sharing their ideas, information and experiences can only lead to team success which will reflect well on you in the future.

Lesson #4: Leadership is not just the domain of senior people

Never assume those in senior roles are the only leaders in your business. Leadership is a quality rather than a skill. It is a trait exhibited early in your career and prepares you for eventually becoming a leader, as opposed to waiting until you are a leader through longevity of service.

During the early days of my career, I met a few senior people who didn’t necessarily have leadership skills but held positions of power – these people mostly sat in their offices giving orders rather than understanding their workforce and how to get the best from them.

Thankfully I learnt what not to do by observing these people. I am also grateful that I met leaders who were not in senior positions yet exhibited behaviour which inspired my leadership career. One of these people was an inbound customer services agent who started in the same business as I did but a year later. I never forgot this man. He was always positive, always looking for solutions, always sharing and celebrating others achievements and he continuously kept a cool head when those around him were losing theirs. He motivated me, unconsciously mentored me and has played a huge part in who I am in the work place today.

The moral of this brief story is to remember that if you want to progress further, you will need to demonstrate leadership qualities, including the aforementioned knowledge sharing, leading by example in terms of performance, staying curious and open-minded, and giving praise.

Lesson #5: Work smarter not longer. That’s what really impresses the boss.

When I first started out in my career, I was so hell bent on the opposite of a work/life balance because I figured the more hours I put in, the more I would get done and the more I would impress the boss because I was demonstrating more commitment than anyone else. The problem was, I would always hit a brick wall after twelve or so hours at work and not actually get much done.

What I have learnt over the years is that you are more productive with a fresh, clear and rested mind- and productivity impresses the boss. Get some exercise, engage with people outside of your work, take some time out and go back to the office with your batteries recharged.

When you think about it, all of these lessons boil down to being honest and true to yourself. Don’t use insubstantial swagger and bravado to get ahead. Actually look at the areas in which you need to develop and the questions you need to ask in order to be ready for that promotion. Don’t be scared to show vulnerability by sharing your ideas for the business or even just taking a step back to recharge the batteries.

Lastly, understand that your seniors aren’t the only ones who can possess leadership traits, and see which ones you can encompass in order to progress your career. Learn these lessons earlier than I did, and get a head start in your meteoric rise to career success.

10 Best Online Web Design Courses — Learn How To Create Websites

Short Bytes:

Web designing is a mixture of programming and art that’s used as a way to represent our ideas in front of others. To help you out, in this tutorial, I’ll tell you about the best online web design courses that will help you to start learning new skills. With these free and paid courses, you’ll learn how to create websites from the scratch and share your ideas with others in no time. Go ahead, give it a try and share your learning experiences with us.

While people are getting acquainted with new technologies and learning web design in a faster manner, others are using online tools to create a simple website without coding knowledge. While I come across many web design software in the market that allow you to simple drag-and-drop and rearrange the elements to make a website, the old fashioned web design process still rules the web.

If you are new to the world of coding, I can understand your frustration as it is very difficult to create and maintain a website without coding knowledge. In this article, I’ll tell you the most popular web design online courses to help you kickstart your career as a good web designer.

Before getting started with how to learn web designing and landing a sweet job, let me ask you a basic question — What is web design?

If I’ll ask you to fire up your web browser and search random phrases, you’ll get answers like web design is a process that involves proper conceptualization, planning and creating a website with the help of different layouts, colors, graphics and whatnot. If you’ll ask me, I’ll call it a process of aesthetically representing your ideas in front of an end-users through the internet. Your approach could be different, you could use multiple languages and software, but one thing remains constant — it’s a way to represent your ideas in front of others.

Web design has multiple elements that include layout, colors, graphics, content, font, text styles, structure, etcetera, etcetera. When you learn how to plan and combine these elements, you are able to master the aspects of web designing. The modern websites make use of server side scripting in PHP, Ski and ASP, while website’s visual aspect makes use of CSS and HTML. Using javascript and ajax, one enhances the user experience. A web designer also needs to grasp the basics of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to create page mockups for desktop and mobile platforms.

To learn how to design a website, if you are looking for some web designing tutorials, I’ll advise you to choose wisely and start learning.

Having said that, let’s start our list of the best online web design courses. With these tutorials, we bring to you the best tutorials from the web to help you learn new skills and change the course of your career. I’ve personally used some of these resources from time-to-time and gained valuable knowledge.

Trusted and authoritative websites for web design training:

Learn by doing at Code School

As told by its motto, Code School promotes coding by doing. If you are a beginner who wishes to get started with a web design course and develop the passion for the subject, then, Code School is a perfect place for you. With the help of interactive videos and coding in your browser, you are taught how to design a website. Code School will allow you to ditch content management systems like WordPress and Joomla, enabling you to code your own website.

The website has one of the first online courses I’ve tried and I found them of highly quality. You’ll find every website making course extremely well done and the presenters do a great job. The website specialises in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ruby. In the HTML/CSS Path, you are taught the fundamentals of design, front-end, and making user experience better. This is one of the best-paid web designing courses that offer great value for money. Just pay $25 and you’ll get the complete access to Code School’s tutorial videos. Apart from a plan for individual learners, there is an option for businesses to enrol their entire teams.